'Band' premiere

Saturday

Nov 7, 2009 at 12:01 AMSep 10, 2014 at 12:56 PM

ETTRICK - "Marching Band" isn't your usual plot about two bands of different backgrounds meeting for the ultimate battle of bands. "Marching Band" is a film documentary that proves that most differences don't matter much when both parties share love for

ETTRICK - "Marching Band" isn't your usual plot about two bands of different backgrounds meeting for the ultimate battle of bands. "Marching Band" is a film documentary that proves that most differences don't matter much when both parties share love for a common interest - music.

And "Marching Band" may also serve as proof that music is more powerful than politics.

Last year, a film team from France spent three months in Virginia following two bands from two of the state's public universities. One was the University of Virginia, one of the nation's more prestigious schools. The other was Virginia State University, a historically black school.

Yesterday, the filmmakers returned to the VSU campus to show the students in a special screening at Virginia Hall what they had crafted - an intriguing picture that documents not only both differences and common threads between students of the two schools, but also shows a historical event through the eyes of the students - the 2008 presidential election.

It started in early summer last year, when Dr. Mark Phillips, director of the Trojan Explosion marching band, received a call from France. "The person told me that a filmmaker was interested in producing a film about a marching band in America," Phillips said.

What may not excite an American movie audience can be a different experience for foreign viewers. "Marching bands don't really exist in France," said Helena Cotinier, one of the film's directors.

Behind the idea was French filmmaker Claude Miller, a well-known director in his home country. Miller is no stranger to Virginia - he attended the French Film Festival in Richmond numerous times. "That's how Claude found this fascination for marching bands," Cotinier said.

The idea for such a film isn't new. The 2007 picture "From the 50 Yard Line" is a documentary which chronicles the high school marching band experience by following the Centerville Jazz Band and the Fairfax High School Marching Band.

Phillips agreed to meet with the filmmakers to discuss the venture. "They wanted to document the experience of an elite school with the experience at a traditional school," he said.

But Miller wanted more.

He wanted to take the chance of the historic 2008 election to show how students from both backgrounds view this event. At first, Phillips was sceptical. "We're musicians, we don't get into political aspects," he said. "I thought they wanted to do this so the movie would become a box office attraction and make more money," he said.

But eventually, Phillips gave in. "This was an election that black people kept their eyes on, and everyone wanted to be part of this history-making election," he said.

Then from August until mid-November, the film crew spent a lot of time with students at both UVA and VSU. "We wanted to create a portrait of the youth in historical times," said co-director Pierre-Nicolas Durand.

To the students, the project came as a surprise. "It was a shock to me at first," said Cordero Leonard, who plays drums with Trojan Explosion. "But I also thought it was a privilege, because this would give us so much more publicity."

Mellophone player James Fields found it interesting that someone from outside the country was interested in American marching bands. "In other cultures, music is so much more important," he said. "I couldn't believe that they would come all the way from France to film us."

The film crew followed the students to games, rehearsals, even their homes, to create a picture of life as a member of the Trojan Explosion. "We spent a lot of time with the students, also without camera, just to get to know them better," Durand said. "We made friends with them and learned that the band is like a big family," Cotinier added.

What they captured on film is more than a documentation of minority students vs. elite school students. But Phillips isn't entirely happy with the film. "I like bits and pieces of it, some parts better than others," he said. "It is entertaining, which is what it is supposed to do, but it is not exactly as life is at VSU."

Some of the students agree. "I like the parts when the bands are playing," said trumpet player Brandon Johns. "But they should have chosen the locations differently." As an example, Johns said that the crew could have picked some more attractive areas in Petersburg to film at.

"They wanted to show a strong contrast between UVA and us," Phillips concluded.

The filmmakers deny this. "We didn't plan to show it like that, it just happened that way," Cotinier said.

The film started to be shown nationally in France last August. "It's doing well," Durand said. On Thursday, it premiered in the U.S. at the film festival in Charlottesville. Tomorrow, students at UVA will get their own viewing and on Monday it will be presented at the French embassy in Washington.

The filmmakers hope to eventually find distribution in America. "It's difficult, because it's a French film and because distributors believe that marching bands are not exotic enough to attract movie audiences," Cotinier said.

But at least for the students, it was an experience - even though a true battle of bands never happened. "I would not say which of the two bands is better," Phillips said. "We come from two very different traditions."

To Phillips, the hope remains that one day, both bands will perform together. Markus Schmidt may be reached at 722-5172 or mschmidt@progress-index.com

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